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I have friends who joke that it seems I’ve lived several different lives when I share anecdotes from my past. Here are ten standout things that most people don’t know about me.

1. I spilled a drink on Henry Winkler. Yes, when I was a baby in Santa Monica, my parents took me to dinner somewhere where I somehow soaked the Fonz. Such is life amongst the stars. This event foreshadowed a life skirting the perimeter of greatness.

2. I have flat feet. “Yup, just as I suspected. Flat as a pancake.” That’s what our family pediatrician informed my mother after a routine physical. He simultaneously shielded me from military duty and heralded a lifelong footwear challenge: I can never find shoes wide enough.

3. Once, I met Yoko Ono. After winning the John Lennon Songwriting Contest along with my collaborator Gaby Moreno and other fine writers, we had the opportunity to meet Yoko at a musical event at the CES show in Las Vegas. We got up ultra-early and zoomed down the freeway to meet the icon. Yoko was lovely, and I have a photo of the three of us to prove it happened.

4. My high school class took an extraordinary trip to Kenya, East Africa, that changed my life. In addition to spending time in a Massai village and various other homestays, I remember listening to Melvins records with my best friend, John. The ’90s were awesome.

5. I possess a degree in Theater Arts, and once played George in a black box theater production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Although one early review lambasted me for having my hair sprayed white like a “high school character actor” (you never forget the bad ones, do you?), we later received some critical nods.

6. I took a writing class at UCLA and dropped out. It was a great course with a great teacher and a fine bunch of students, and I’m embarrassed that I didn’t complete it. However, I didn’t have a car then and was bicycling across town from Silver Lake. Who knows? Maybe I would have started publishing sooner had I stuck it out.

7. There is a trick I can do because I’m double-jointed. I can make my arm go all the way back behind my head at a ninety-degree angle so it looks disconnected. My mother found me asleep like that once and thought I was dead. Nope, just resting.

8. I have gout. That’s right, I am afflicted by the most Dickensian of ailments. I take medication for it now, but for many years, I would unexpectedly get hit by waves of the strangest, most excruciating joint pain localized in my big toe. It’s a genetic thing.

9. I was obsessed with the singer Bryan Adams in junior high, so much so that I scribbled his name all over my notebooks. Once, I must have left my books on the playing field, and a teacher came in yelling, “Bryan Adams? Is Bryan Adams in here?”

10. Astrology is one of my obsessions. I can’t tell you how much I consult astrotheme.com. I know my own chart inside out. Moreover, I can often guess people’s sun and rising signs. I like how it makes everything make sense. Like, “Ah, I can relax because I know someone has a Scorpio moon.”

It’s the late ’90s—the final days before smartphones and the internet changed the teenage landscape forever. Zack and his mother have moved from Tempe to Berkeley for a fresh start, leaving behind Zack’s father after a painful divorce. A natural athlete, Zack makes the water polo team which equals social acceptance at his new school. Yet he’s more drawn to Matthias, a rebellious skater on the fringes, who introduces him to punk rock, record stores, and the legendary Telegraph Avenue.

As their friendship intensifies, Matthias’s behavior reminds Zack of his absent dad, driving a wedge between him and his mother. Complicating matters is Zaylee, a senior who boosts Zack’s confidence but makes him question his new buddy, Matthias. Faced with all these changes, Zack learns that when life gets messy, he might have to become his own best friend.

Dr. Z and Matty Take Telegraph is about how a friendship can challenge who we are, how we fit in, and where we’re going.

Enjoy an Excerpt

My eyes catch the main event: Matthias, shirtless again, owning every inch of the bowl. No matter how little I know about skateboarding mechanics, it’s obvious the dude’s form is immaculate. I stand transfixed as he slides smoothly down one side of the bowl and up the other, like a weight on a pendulum, his head peering back over his shoulder, carefree. After gaining momentum, he hoists his lithe body over the top and holds perfectly still, one hand on his board, the other gripping the lip of the bowl. It’s dazzling.

As soon as he breaks the pose, a small crowd erupts. “Sick handplant, Matthias,” yells a kid in a yellow Carhart jacket.

Everything looks straight out of a movie. Skaters in shirts with blocky logos give each other high fives. Younger kids sit on the sidelines, boards glued to their hands, watching the action but not ready to dive in.

When we read On the Road during freshman year, Dad taught me a term that stuck with me: subculture. I’ve got no desire to ride a skateboard. But this vibe? I want to be a part of it. I’m swept up on a wave of California freedom.

Danny shoves an elbow into my belly. “Matthias is a monster skater, right?”

“Never seen skating like that,” I say. “Except on TV or in a movie.”

“Exactly.”

About the Author:Ari Rosenschein is a Seattle-based author who grew up in the Bay Area. Books and records were a source of childhood solace, leading Ari to a teaching career and decades of writing, recording, and performing music. Along the way, he earned a Grammy shortlist spot, landed film and TV placements, and co-wrote the 2006 John Lennon Songwriting Contest Song of the Year.

In his writing, Ari combines these twin passions. Coasting, his debut short story collection, was praised by Newfound Journal as “introducing us to new West Coast archetypes who follow the tradition of California Dreaming into the 21st century.” Dr. Z and Matty Take Telegraph (Fire & Ice YA) is his first young adult novel.

Buy the book at Amazon.

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